Saraki Cries Foul Over Forfeiture of Ikoyi Property

Immediate-past Senate President of Nigeria, Dr Bukola Saraki, on Thursday cried out before the Federal High Court, Lagos, over attempts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to have his two Ikoyi, Lagos, properties permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

The said properties are located at 17 and 17A McDonald Road, Ikoyi, Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State.

The EFCC had through its counsel, Nneameka Omenwa, applied to court to forfeit the properties to government on the grounds that buildings were obtained with loans from GTBank and repaid back with Kwara State funds.

Saraki informed the court through his lawyers led by Kehinde Ogunwunmiju (SAN), that he (Saraki) was already a successful businessman with properties worldwide before he came into politics.

He said that the EFCC must prove to the court that such property was proceed of unlawful act.

Justice Mohammed Liman had granted the ex-parte motion for the interim forfeiture of the two properties before he was yesterday informed that both the interim and attempted permanent forfeiture of his two properties was an abuse of court process.

Saraki’s lawyer argued that the EFCC was also stopped from relitigating on the same properties because the agency had litigated on same properties from the Code of Conduct Tribunal up to the Supreme Court and lost.

He said that Justice Taiwo Taiwo had made an order restraining EFCC from filing such a case, adding that the order was still subsisting.

Facts brought before the court are that Saraki while being governor of Kwara was deducting N100m from security votes to defray the loan but the judgment of the CCT dismissing the case against Saraki was affirmed by the Supreme Court.